Refrigerating apparatus



. Sept. 26, 1933. A; MEYER 1,928,386

REFRIGERAT ING APPARATUS Filed NOV. 22, 1932 A 2 Sheets-Sheet l A. MEYER 1,928,386

REFRIGERATING APPARATUS Sept. 26, 1933.

Filed Nov. 22. 1932 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 h5g4. Y

Patented Sept. 26, 1933 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 1,928,386 REFRIGERATING APPARATUS Adolf Meyer, Kusnacht, near Zurich, Switzerland, assignor to Aktiengesellsehaft Brown, Boveri & Cie., Baden, Switzerland, a jointstock company Application November 22, 1932, Serial No. 643,915, and in Germany December 24, 1931 15 Claims. (Cl. 62115) This inv ntion relates to refrigerating app Fig. 2 is a transverse view in partial section ratus, and particularly to refrigerating apparatus of the refrigerating machine of Fig. 1. of large capacity for industrial use. Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic illustration of a.

A principal object of the invention is to promodification of the invention.

vide a fully enclosed refrigerating apparatus for Figs. 4 and 5 are a fragmentary longitudinal 66 industrial application. section and a transverse section of a refrigerat- A u t Object is o p ovide a o pa t ing machine having a plurality of evaporators. fri r tins app u f l r p ity in which In the figures, 1 is a case adapted to form a excessive heat loss is avoided and troubles arisbase for the refrigerating machine and containing m unequal thermal e pansion of the ing the evaporator 3 and condenser 2. Above the 65 structural elements are eliminated. evaporator and condenser, the case is reinforced It is known to build on a block a d c p ete y by a number of cross beams 4. These cross beams enclose small refrigerating machines such as, provide a solid foundation for the motor-comfor example, household machines, including the pressor unit. The case is provided at its upper motor. Larger machines have also been built edge with a flange 5, and a dome 6surrounding the on a block, but in this case the enclosing of the motor-compressor unit is secured to this flange. motor compressor unit has been avoided. The space enclosed by the case and the dome Because of the crowded-nature of the assembly, is subdivided by partitions 7a, 17b, and 7c, welded and h p v y p t ced arrangement of the to the box, into chambers in such a way that the individual parts, certain difficulties arise with evaporator, the condenser, the motor 8, and the 75 r p t to h at ransfer and the varyin expancompressor 9 with drive 10 are arranged each in a sion of the structural elements at very difierent chamber. The evaporator, condenser and motortemperatures, which difiiculties readily give rise compressor units are arranged'horizontally, or to disturbances in the operation of the machines. nearly horizontally, and axially parallel to each Briefly stated, the invention comprises a reother. so fri r ns ppa u in l din a c ntain- 11 is a suction pipe leading from the evaporator ing t v p and the Condenser. Which to the compressor, 12 is the pressure pipe of the also Serves as a base for the refrigerating flcompressor leading to the condenser, and 13 is a chine. The case is reinforced with a number pipe connecting ith th condenser through of cross members in Order to form a firm foundawhich, with the help of the ventilating action of 151011 for the Placing of the motor-compressor the motor, cooled refrigerant vapors are sucked unit above the evaporator condenser assembly into cool the motor. These vapors are led back and is Provided at its upper edge with a flange again through connection 14 into the condenser..

- to which is attached a housing or dome covering All of these pipes are connected to the partitions 9 the motor-compressor unit. The space enclosed 7a and 7b f t ondenser-, evaporatorand 0 by the case and the dome is subdivided .by parmotopcompressor chambers titions welded to the case in such a way that In order to equalize the expansion caused by fig fi ig gg g 5 z g g ggfi gfi different temperatures, the partitions 7a, 7b are W h g a p p provided at suitable places with expansion mem- :2 arrangement the evaporator and the bers or inserts of resilient or elastic material 15 a condenser form the base for the whole assembly. agg figsgg gfig i g sgfiggi g ggf The other parts compressor motor and dnve' to the plate is possible so that the expansions of J are fixed then-at? mdepend-ently' (-jom-lectmg the cold suction pipe 11 and the warm pressure ports for maintaining the refrigerant circuit from I u m ensated for one chamber to another are provided in the mp8 12 are Sumclen y d nd the separating partitions which are also provided The tube headers of 9 con enser evaporator form the end surfaces of the base cash il nt r elastic inserts in order to insure x2e igaii siori g 1 and are welded gas-tight thereto. The hot- The invention will be m r fully described tom 16 of the box is formed with a longitudinal with reference to the accompanying drawings. arch (see Fig. 2) in order to separate the llqllld Fig. 1 shows a longitudinal view, i partial reservoirs of the condenser and evaporator from section, of a completely enclosed refrigerating a h ot e and e y p v undeslred heat 5 machine assembled upon a single block in ac transfer. The vapor chambers themselves are I cordance with the invention. insulated from each other by filling the space be- 119 2 tween partitions 7a and 7b with heat insulating material 37.

All of the devices for current lead-in 1'1, for cold water and refrigerant 18, for filling and emptying 19, for de-aerating 20, the oil gage 21 and the liquid gage 22 of the evaporator and condenser are preferably attached to the case so that loosening or removal of these devices is unnecessary when the dome must be taken off for any reason.

The liquid regulating valve 23 provided between the condenser and evaporator is shown as a float valve. The outer housing 24 is welded to the side of the base casing and is provided with a removable cover 25. In this way the valve is made accessible for control without the necessity of taking off the dome.

The rotary pump 26 for the circulation of' liquid in the evaporator is set into from above through partition 7a. It is supported in the evaporator by spider 27 in such a way that the resilient ring 28 seals the evaporator chamber from the compressor chamber at the point where the sleeve of the pump shaft passes through partition 7a. The impeller of the pump is arranged in a sump in the bottom of the evaporator whereby a greater influx height is provided for the refrigerant. The pump is driven through a horizontal drive shaft. The whole arrangement of the vertical pump is such that it may be simply suspended from above and by its own weight compresses the resilient packing rings so as to effect the proper positioning of the pump as well as the effective closure of the opening in the partition.

The interior heat losses of such an enclosed refrigerating machine can be diminished by arranging the individual elements in such away that there are no large temperature differences between them. For instance, in the case of a multi-stage evaporation and condensation, the individual parts of the apparatus are adjacent each other, according to increasing or decreasing temperature, so that the temperature difference between the neighboring parts is therefore a minimum.

The flange connection between case 1 and dome 6, as well as all of the connections, are advantageously provided with a liquid closure against air entrance and exit. For this purpose, channels 29 are provided which are automatically filled from a reservoir 30 containing refrigerant.

The de-aeration of the assembly is effected by means of an auxiliary unit placed near the main assembly. This auxiliary unit consists of motor 31, compressor 32 and auxiliary condenser 33. The de-aeration pipe 34 is provided with an automatic valve 35 which is automatically cut off from connection with the main-apparatus after de-aeration. In this way, passage of air from the de-aeration pipe back to the main assembly is prevented. It is advantageous to build the pump as a high vacuum pump so that it can be used likewise for production of a vacuum. It

can also be used for filling the apparatus in that the apparatus when pumped free of air will automatically suck up liquid through pipe 19 from a container placed at a lower level. On the dea erating pipe there is provided an air gage 36 which indicates the amount of air present at any As indicated diagrammatically in Fig. 3, condenser 2 and evaporator 3 may be arranged in a different manner from that shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The separating flange and the dome are condenses at low temperatures.

shown in an inclined position. The dome 6 may be constructed in the form of a lid.

In the machine shown in Figs. 4 and 5 there are two evaporators 3 and 3a connected for flow of liquid refrigerant from 3a to 3 or in the order of decreasing temperatures by conduit 39. The evaporators 3 and 3a are connected to compressor 9 by conduits 11 and 11a, respectively.

In the previously known machines of this type, great care must be taken to provide for heat insulation of the different partitions, especially because the whole housing is filled with vaporized refrigerant, and insulation by means of air layers is impossible. Every machine part and every wall in the interior of the machine which is at a temperature below the saturation point of the surrounding vapor becomes a condensation surface. Since the heat conductivity of the condensing vapor is high, this may lead to very great heat losses. It is impossible to protect such condensing surfaces against heat transfer by means of the usual insulation, since the usual heat insulating materials which are valuable in ordinary uses are practically useless in the machine in most cases. This, is because such materials are almost always porous and effect very good insulation by reason of the fact that they contain very fine air spaces. In a vapor atmosphere such as obtains in machines of the present type, these pores do not serve any useful purpose, since they become filled with vapor which The insulation then becomes completely saturated with refrigerant liquid and the insulating effect is considerably diminished. This behavior of the insulating materials cannot be prevented by impreg nation, since nearly all materials used for this purpose are soluble in refrigerating agents, so that they are washed out of the insulating material- These disadvantages areovercome in the present invention by maintaining the spaces in which the heat insulating material is placed at the lowest pressure obtaining in the machine; that is, at the evaporator pressure. The gas pressure in the pores of the insulating material is the saturation pressure which corresponds to the lowest tem-.

perature in the machine, but since the insulating material, because of its position between cold and warm spaces, is at a higher temperature than that, no condensation can take place. The pores are therefore filled with superheated vapor, the insulating effect of which is very good, as is well known.

In the present construction this effect can be best obtained by placing the space containing compressor 9 and drive 10 under the evaporator pressure with the aid of opening 38 in partition 7a. The insulating layers 3'7 which are all in this space will not now become wet, as explained above, and will have a permanent insulating action. The motor remains under the condenser pressure, since it is advantageous to connect the ventilation circuit of the motor to the condenser so that the windings are cooled with the refrigerant at condenser pressure and the motor heat losses are directly removed by the cooling waterin the condenser.

I claim:

1. A completely enclosed refrigerating apparatus including a motor-compressor assembly, a condenser andan evaporator, a casing providing a container for said evaporator and condenser, a plurality of transverse stiffening members positioned in the upper portion of said casing and cooperating therewith to provide a rigid base for said motor-compressor assembly, a dome adapted to be fastened to the top of said casing and to enclose said motor-compressor assembly, and partitions dividing the space enclosed within said casing and dome into chambers separately enclosing the evaporator, the condenser, the compressor and the motor.

2. A completely enclosed refrigerating apparatus including a motor-compressor assembly, a condenser and an evaporator, a casing providing a container for said evaporator and condenser, a plurality of transverse stiffening members positioned in the upper portion of said casing and cooperating therewith to provide a rigid base for said motor-compressor assembly, a dome adapted to be fastened to the top of said casing and to enclose said motor-compressor assembly, partitions dividing the space enclosed within said casing and dome into chambers separately enclosing the evaporator, the condenser, the compressor and the motor, said partitions being provided with openings adapted for the conduction of vapor from the evaporator to the compressor, from the compressor to the condenser, and from the condenser to the motor.

3. A. completely enclosed refrigerating apparatus including a motor-compressor assembly, a condenser and an evaporator, a casing providing a container for said evaporator and condenser, a plurality of transverse stiffening members positioned in the upper portion or said casing and cooperating therewith to provide a rigid base for said motor-compressor assembly, a dome adapted to be fastened to the top of said casing and to enclose said motor-compressor assembly, partitions dividing the space enclosed within said casing and dome into chambers separately enclosing the evaporator, the condenser, the compressor and the motor, said partitions being provided with expansion members adapted to permit thermal expansion of the structural units of the assembly.

4. A completely enclosed refrigerating apparatus including a motor-compressor assembly, a condenser and an evaporator, a casing providing a container for said evaporator and condenser, a plurality of transverse stiifeningmembers positioned in the upper portion of said casing and cooperating therewith to provide'a rigid base for said motor-compressor assembly, a. dome adapted to be fastened to the top of said casing and to enclose said motor-compressor assembly, partitions dividing the space enclosed within said casing and dome into chambers separately en closing the evaporator, the condenser, the coinpressor and the motor, the headers of the tube sheaves of the condenser and evaporator being Welded to said casing to form a portion of the surface thereof.

5. A completely enclosed refrigerating apparatus including a motor-compressor assembly, 'a condenser and an evaporator, a casing providing a container for said evaporator and condenser, a plurality of transverse stiffening members positioned in the upper portion of said casing and cooperating therewith to provide a rigid base for said motor-compressor assembly, a dome adapted to be fastened to the top of said casing and to enclose said motor-compressor assembly, partitions dividing the space enclosed within said casing and dome into chambers separately enclosing the evaporator, the condenser, the com pressor and the motor, the external auxiliary devices of said apparatus being positioned on said casing.

6. A completely enclosed refrigerating apparatus including a motor-compressor assembly, a condenser and an evaporator, a casing providing a container for said evaporator and condenser, a plurality of transverse stiffening members positioned in the upper portion of said casing and cooperating therewith to provide a rigid base for said motor-compressor assembly, a dome adapted to be fastened to the top of said casing and to enclose said motor-compressor assembly, partitions dividing the space enclosed within said casing and dome into chambers separately enclosing the evaporator, the condenser, the compressor and the motor, and a valve adapted to control the flow of liquid from said compressor to said evaporator, the housing of said valve being integral with said casing and having a removable cover external to said casing.

7. A completely enclosed refrigerating apparatus including-a motor-compressor assembly, a condenser and an evaporator, a casing providing a container for said evaporator and condenser, a plurality of transverse stiffening members positioned in the upper portion of said casing and cooperating therewith to provide a rigid base for said motor-compressor assembly, a dome adapted to be fastened to the top of said casing and to enclose said motor-compressor assembly, partitions dividing the space enclosed Within said casing and dome into chambers separately enclosing the evaporator, the condenser, the compressor and the motor, and a pump disposed in said evaporator to circulate the liquid thereof, said pump being driven from the compressor drive shaft and being so positioned in that the opening between the compressor chamber and the evapo rator chamber is closed by the weight of the pump resting on a resilient closure member.

8. A-refrigerating apparatus as defined in claim '1 comprising a plurality of evaporators arranged in the order of decreasing temperatures.

9. A completely enclosed refrigerating apparatus including a motor-compressor assembly, a condenser and an evaporator, a casing providing a container for said evaporator and condenser, a plurality of transverse stiffening'members positioned in the upper portion of said casing and cooperating therewith to provide a rigid base for said motor-compressor assembly, a dome adapted to be fastened to the top of said casing and to enclose said motor-compressor assembly, partitions dividing the space enclosed Within said casing and dome into chambers separately enclosing the evaporator, the condenser, the compressor and themotor, the closure between said casing and said dome including a liquid seal containing refrigerant.

10. A completely enclosed refrigerating appaq ratus including a motor-compressor assembly, a condenser and an evaporator, a casing providing a container for said evaporator and condenser,

a plurality of transverse stiffening members positioned in the upper portion of said casing and cooperating therewith to provide a rigid base for said motor-compressor assembly, a dome adapted to be fastened to the top of said casing and to enclose said motor-compressor assembly, partitions dividing the space enclosed Within said casing and dome into chambers separately enclosing the evaporator, the condenser, the compressor and the motor, and means external of said'casing for indicating the gas and liquid contents of said apparatus.

11. A completely enclosed refrigerating apparatus including a motor-compressor assembly, a condenser and an evaporator, a casing providing a container for said evaporator and condenser, a plurality of transverse stiffening members positioned in the upper portion of said casing and cooperating therewith to provide a rigid base for said motor compressor assembly, a dome adapted to be fastened to the top of said casing and to enclose said motor-compressor assembly, partitions dividing the space enclosed within said casing and dome into chambers separately enclosing the evaporator, the condenser, the compressor and the motor, the motor-compressorassembly, the condenser and the evaporator being arranged with their longitudinal axes parallel.

12. A completely enclosed refrigerating apparatus including a motor-compressor assembly, a condenser and an evaporator, a casing providing a container for said evaporator and condenser, a plurality of transverse stiffening members positioned in the upper portion of said casing and cooperating therewith to provide a rigid base for said motor-compressor assembly, a dome adapted to be fastened to the top of said casing and to enclose said motor-compressor assembly partitions dividing the space enclosed within said casing and dome into chambers separately enclosing the evaporator, the condenser, the compressor and the motor, and heat insulating means between said evaporator and said condenser,

maintained under the pressure prevailing in the evaporator.

13. A completely enclosed refrigerating apparatus including a motor-compressor assembly, a condenser and an evaporator, a casing providing a container for said evaporator and condenser, a plurality of transverse stiffening members positioned in the upper portion of said casing and cooperating therewith to provide a rigid base for said motor-compressor assembly, a dome adapted to be fastened to'the top of saidcasing and to enclose said motor-compressor assembly, partitions dividing the space enclosed within said casing and dome into chambers separately enclosing the evaporator, the condenser, the compressor and the motor, the chamber in which the motor is placed being maintained under the pressure prevailing in the condenser.

14. A refrigerating system comprising a completely enclosed refrigerating apparatus as defined in claim 1 and means associated therewith for de-aerating said apparatus including a high vacuum pump.

15. A refrigerating system comprising a completely enclosed refrigerating apparatus as defined in claim 1, means associated therewith for de-aerating said apparatus including a high vac- I uum pump and an automatic liquid seal between said apparatus and said de-aerating means adapted to prevent the passage of air from said deaerating means into said apparatus.

ADOLF MEYER. 

